INTERNATIONALIZATION-ING INTERNATIONALIZATION (i18n) Victoria Gonda 

WHAT IS INTERNATIONALIZATION? • Localization – Providing native language translations. • Having both RTL and LTR layouts and icons. • Using mindful abbreviations and date/time formats. • Watching iconography semantics. 

WHY INTERNATIONALIZATION • Makes the product accessible to more people. • Also makes it more comfortable for other people. 

LOCALIZATION • Often the most obvious part of i18n. • Requires each of your user facing strings are referenced from a string resources file. • Then there are alternates for each of these strings for each language you support. 

TECHNICAL values/strings.xml values-es/strings.xml 

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ABBREVIATIONS AND FORMATS • Not everyone uses and knows the same abbreviations. • People prefer different date and time formats. • If you can display something in a user’s currency the message is understood better. 

RIGHT-TO-LEFT • Support right aligned text • Also reverse parts of layouts and breadcrumbs • Reverse directional icons and icons showing text direction 

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ICONOGRAPHY SEMANTICS • Symbols might not mean the same thing in all cultures • Watch for icons with currency and letters 

TESTING • Change language in browser • Try RTL • Ask someone from another part of the world for their thoughts! 

WHAT NOW? • Short i18n checklist: https://www.w3.org/International/techniques/ shortchecklist.html • RTL for web: https://www.upwork.com/hiring/for-clients/web-design- for-rtl-languages-basics/ • i18n checker: http://validator.w3.org/i18n-checker/ 

THANKS! VICTORIA GONDA